The British government outlawed slave trade from Africa to the
Americas in 1807. They commenced intercepting slave ships and
landing them in Freetown, and many of them were Nigerians.
The Church Missionary Society of England worked to educate and
convert these recaptured slaves. Some of them trained in Fourah Bay
College and became Missionaries
By 1883, they already had 23 African Clergy men. Prominent
amongst them were Samuel Ajayi Crowther who joined the
expeditions up the Niger into Nigerian territory from 1851 to 1857,
and eventually became the Bishop of the Niger territories in 1864
He pioneered the translation of the English Bible into local
languages to reach the people of the territory. He published a
grammar book for Yoruba and a translation of the Anglican Book of
Common Prayer.
While the full Yoruba Bible would not be completed until 1884,
Crowther also aided other translation projects. In the 1850s, he
helped publish language primers in Igbo and Nupe.